Post by wardengine on Jun 6, 2012 13:25:26 GMT -5
Burning passion: Former Kingston firefighter and son restore old engines
By JOHN P. ANISTRANSKI, Times Leader Intern
Jun 4
KINGSTON -- One passion has motivated 53-year-old Tom Bretz for as long as he can recall: Fighting fires. • But his days as a Kingston firefighter ended prematurely in 1998, when a severe stroke forced him to retire. • Instead of letting it squelch his passion, Bretz treated retirement as an opportunity to share his love of the fire service with the person dearest to him —his son Tommy. • Under the title T. Bretz and Son, Tom and Tommy have publicly displayed their shared affection for fire truck restoration, recently exhibiting two antique engines in the Memorial Day Parade in Kingston.
The Bretzes began their first fire truck refurbishment when Tommy was 14. The truck was a 1940s Ward LaFrance that Tom first spotted in a parking lot in Dallas.
He personally approached its owner and eventually he purchased the truck for $5,000. T. Bretz and Son began its first restoration soon after.
Tommy Bretz, now 23, has since worked on three restorations with his father. Still, he describes that first Ward LaFrance as the “biggest work of them all.”
To begin, the truck had to be sanded down and repainted. Then the Bretzes had to hunt for antique equipment from the 1940s to properly outfit the truck’s interior. Finally, they entirely rewired the engine so that it could function at full capacity.
This restoration was not unmarred by a few arguments and spats. The elder Bretz acknowledged he and his son “got so close over it.”
Tommy said he would “do it all over again,” and he has: He and his father also have refurbished a 1960s Ward LaFrance and are in the finishing stages of refurbishing a Hahn engine.
That Hahn engine symbolizes the centrality of the Bretzes’ shared hobby to their father-son bond.
Tommy had long expressed to his father a dream to restore a Hahn truck — a slight departure from the Ward LaFrance models on which they had worked in the past.
And so Tom, seeing in his son a shared passion for fire engines, devoted his energies to finding a Hahn. It became an all-consuming desire: “I want to leave this earth knowing you got the Hahn you wanted,” he told his son.
Bretz finally fulfilled his son’s wish when he discovered a Hahn for sale at the Atlas Fire Co. in Mount Carmel.
T. Bretz and Son are in the process of refurbishing this truck.
Bretz recommended a few organizations to those interested in his family’s hobby:
• The Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America has been active since 1958 and has chapters worldwide.
• The Schuylkill Historical Fire Society, a local organization open to the public, hosts a museum devoted to the fire service in a company building restored in good part thanks to the Bretzes’ personal efforts.
Even with his constant involvement in fire truck refurbishment, Bretz refuses to leave his beloved fire service fully behind.
He holds a lifetime membership in the Kingston Fire Department and stores his trucks at the South Sprague Avenue station. He also sits as a member of the Six County Firemen’s Association and serves as the vice president of the Luzerne County Fire Rescue Training Association.
read more & ee pictures : timesleader.com/stories/A-BURNING-PASSION,158927#ixzz1wpEHVkyZ
By JOHN P. ANISTRANSKI, Times Leader Intern
Jun 4
KINGSTON -- One passion has motivated 53-year-old Tom Bretz for as long as he can recall: Fighting fires. • But his days as a Kingston firefighter ended prematurely in 1998, when a severe stroke forced him to retire. • Instead of letting it squelch his passion, Bretz treated retirement as an opportunity to share his love of the fire service with the person dearest to him —his son Tommy. • Under the title T. Bretz and Son, Tom and Tommy have publicly displayed their shared affection for fire truck restoration, recently exhibiting two antique engines in the Memorial Day Parade in Kingston.
The Bretzes began their first fire truck refurbishment when Tommy was 14. The truck was a 1940s Ward LaFrance that Tom first spotted in a parking lot in Dallas.
He personally approached its owner and eventually he purchased the truck for $5,000. T. Bretz and Son began its first restoration soon after.
Tommy Bretz, now 23, has since worked on three restorations with his father. Still, he describes that first Ward LaFrance as the “biggest work of them all.”
To begin, the truck had to be sanded down and repainted. Then the Bretzes had to hunt for antique equipment from the 1940s to properly outfit the truck’s interior. Finally, they entirely rewired the engine so that it could function at full capacity.
This restoration was not unmarred by a few arguments and spats. The elder Bretz acknowledged he and his son “got so close over it.”
Tommy said he would “do it all over again,” and he has: He and his father also have refurbished a 1960s Ward LaFrance and are in the finishing stages of refurbishing a Hahn engine.
That Hahn engine symbolizes the centrality of the Bretzes’ shared hobby to their father-son bond.
Tommy had long expressed to his father a dream to restore a Hahn truck — a slight departure from the Ward LaFrance models on which they had worked in the past.
And so Tom, seeing in his son a shared passion for fire engines, devoted his energies to finding a Hahn. It became an all-consuming desire: “I want to leave this earth knowing you got the Hahn you wanted,” he told his son.
Bretz finally fulfilled his son’s wish when he discovered a Hahn for sale at the Atlas Fire Co. in Mount Carmel.
T. Bretz and Son are in the process of refurbishing this truck.
Bretz recommended a few organizations to those interested in his family’s hobby:
• The Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America has been active since 1958 and has chapters worldwide.
• The Schuylkill Historical Fire Society, a local organization open to the public, hosts a museum devoted to the fire service in a company building restored in good part thanks to the Bretzes’ personal efforts.
Even with his constant involvement in fire truck refurbishment, Bretz refuses to leave his beloved fire service fully behind.
He holds a lifetime membership in the Kingston Fire Department and stores his trucks at the South Sprague Avenue station. He also sits as a member of the Six County Firemen’s Association and serves as the vice president of the Luzerne County Fire Rescue Training Association.
read more & ee pictures : timesleader.com/stories/A-BURNING-PASSION,158927#ixzz1wpEHVkyZ